Posted on 04/24/2008 10:43:23 AM PDT by PercivalWalks
Danica Patrick became the first female winner in IndyCar history recently, winning the Indy Japan 300 by 6 seconds.
Some women's advocates and Patrick herself are complaining about a new rule which feminists claim is "aimed at the women in Indy." The rule says that lighter drivers have to carry ten more pounds on them.
Race car driver Robby Gordon has a different perspective, saying that Patrick is at an unfair advantage over the rest of the competitors because she only weighs 100 pounds. Because all the cars weigh the same, Patricks is lighter on the race track. He says:
The lighter the car, the faster it goes. Do the math. Put her in the car at her weight, then put me or Tony Stewart in the car at 200 pounds and our car is at least 100 pounds heavier."
I know nothing about auto racing beyond what I learn from watching old Speed Racer cartoons with my daughter, but Dan H., a reader, does. He writes:
"Auto racing is about accelerating and decelerating weight in a straight line and an arc (corner). It takes a calculated amount of fuel (power) to accomplish this feat with the largest variable by several orders of magnitude the amount of weight that is being thrown around. Ever hear of 'Power-to-Weight Ratio?' In heavily equalized cars weighing 1500 pounds, a 100lb driver vs. a 165lb driver is a rigged race. Robbie Gordon is dead right: Forget It!
"With nearly the sole exception of Tony Georges Indy Racing League, all of the major series, and quite a few of the club racers, recognize this and either weigh the car and driver together or separately and make adjustments. The IRL introduced a laughable adjustment just this year.
"While racing officials do not concern themselves with the drivers height, muscle mass, shoe size, eye color, gender, carbon footprint, or about a hundred other personal characteristics, they very much want to balance the weight across the drivers then let 'em race. In auto racing, the drivers weight looms as large as horsepower, tire width, vehicle height, spoilers, and more.
"People demanding that Danicas huge weight (speed) advantage be ignored have never fielded a $45,000,000 race team. She weighs 75 pounds less than the average male driver in a sport where the teams pay $500,000 to get 2 pounds out of the weight of a manifold.
"She is a mid-pack performer at best that finishes higher up because of her incredibly advantageous weight. Bolt 20 pounds in the chassis beside each shoulder and her gender-provided weight bias disappears...and so does her up front finishes."
From what Dan H. says, it sounds a little like the Boston Marathon where a woman "won" the race because the female runners started the race 29 minutes before the men. If they spend $500,000 to decrease a car's weight by two pounds, a 75 pound difference seems staggering, and the 10 pound balancing that Patrick and feminists are complaining about seems pretty minor.
On the other hand, I wonder if Patrick's strength disadvantage also means something. Let's say, for example, that they equalized the weights, as they apparently do in most of the races. Would it then be unfair to Patrick because she is effectively forced to carry "dead weight," while the male drivers' extra weight is at least in the form of muscle that helps them drive the cars?
On another level, even to compete and be a "mid-pack performer" as a professional race car driver, as Patrick has done, seems like quite an achievement.
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Weight isn’t the only factor here.
Women are supposed to have more physical endurance than men so maybe the men can whine about that too.....Whaaaaaaaa!
Of course, they conveniently omit the fact that men are generally stronger ( and driving an Indy Car does require strength, just to resist the G-forces) so weight and strength become a trade off.
The men should get over it, or the teams should hire female drivers if they think they have such an advantage.
She could get 10lbs worth of silicone implants.....
Robby Gordon shows his lack of class yet again. Simply having a lighter driver does not guarantee performance -> remember Teo Fabi and the Porsche Indy Car effort? He was TINY and the car was designed for his jockey like frame.
Robby seems to find fault with everyone else and never himself. He talked himself out of open wheel racing and will probably do the same in NASCAR.
Danica is married.
So suck it up Robby-girl, no one likes a whiner.
I agree with this....Weight IS a critical factor.
Sorry ladies, but this isn’t some attack on your ovaries.
If there was a 100 pound man or midget being put in one of these cars, I would have the same concerns about an glaring unfair advantage.
Its just too extreme a difference in weight compared to all the other drivers.
I think Danica has proven she’s a driver who can compete on the Indy Car level so I have no problem with her jumping in an IRL car and going for it.
Good for her. But the weight issue needs to be addressed.
How much of that 200 pounds is beer and barbeque weight? Have the men considered losing any weight?
-PJ
I could go either way.
We all know that women are handicapped in their driving ability so any disadvantage that the men have in their machines would be offset by their inherently better driving skill.
Seriesly.....nothing but respect for ANYONE with the cojones to even sit down in one of those.
I remember once.....quite a few years and 40 pounds ago....I thought I was doing good at a Pirelli test&tune atop a brand new factory spec GSXR1000 with Pirelli slicks at a track in virginia. I came out of the #8 bank in second gear at 8k rpm.....a little bit of wheel spin until the front tire finally touched down as I changed into 3rd at 13k rpm. I heard the most deafening gawd-awful noise and was passed by a flat black F1. I forgot all about the data I was supposed to be collecting for the tires and had to make something up...
I will never forget the power coming out of that thing as it passed. Friggin awesome. I was shaking for two hours after that ride.
The simple fact is that weight has a huge effect on the performance of a race car. Both in accelleration and turning. I don't really know too much about this in auto racing, but in the case of motorcycle racing, losing 5 pounds of weight is equal to gaining an additional horse power in acceleration. Plus it allows the bike to decellerate much faster, and it allows the bike to turn much faster as well. A 75 pound weight difference is about equal to a 15HP difference, a HUGH difference in racing.
Mark
Yes, the requirement for all IRL male drivers to be fat bbq junkies. Thats why they are hired. Look at the picture of Danica and that other driver. He’s obviously eats nothing but bbq and drinks beer. I’m sure he could drop to 100 pounds like her if he just laid off the junk food.
Yep.
When I was racing, I only weighed about 135 lbs soaking wet. We had to add weight to the car in order to get over the minimum “wet weight”.
Actually, we looked at it as an advantage because we could choose WHERE to put the weight.
:)
Danica is married to Paul Hospenthal, a physical therapist in Phoenix.
FWIW that is Helio Castroneves who won the last segment of Dancing With The Stars.
I could sense the sarcasm in your post.
All drivers are exceptionally fit bordering on athletic.
There’s a saying in Drag Racing, “Weight reduction starts with the driver.”
She should put some clothes on then and quit distracting dirty old Freepers from my work . I mean from their work .
Stewart at 200lbs? Yeah, riiiiight. Looks to me like Tony’s fast approaching Jimmy Spencerville...
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